Renting a Car

[Kimi313]

We are headed down in 2 weeks for a LA/DL trip. We will be arriving at LAX and spend the first half of the trip in LA so we want a rental car. No experience for me on renting a car, I have heard people say 'reserve it before you go' and some say 'no don't reserve cause if you reserve a certain car and when you get there one may not be available so you will have to wait for it'. Thoughts please!

 

[StageTek]

Reserve it. Perhaps you might have to wait a few minutes. Most of the time you won't at a major airport. You might even get an upgraded car at the reserved price. THAT has happened to me more times than having to wait. If you are in a hurry when you reach the car rental and don't want to wait for the car you reserved then tell them you will take what ever car they have on hand at that moment.

 

[Kimi313]

Thank you! Sounds like a plan, going to book now.

 

[bcla]

We are headed down in 2 weeks for a LA/DL trip. We will be arriving at LAX and spend the first half of the trip in LA so we want a rental car. No experience for me on renting a car, I have heard people say 'reserve it before you go' and some say 'no don't reserve cause if you reserve a certain car and when you get there one may not be available so you will have to wait for it'. Thoughts please!

That is the strangest advice to not reserve. Reserving means locking in a rate, while showing up the day of could mean anything from the rates shooting up to no availability. I have had to wait for a car before, but if I showed up without a reservation I don't know which place has the best prices and I might have to wait behind all the people who have reserved.

I rarely run into a case where I have to wait long for a car, but that affects everyone. I've also had no availability of my reserved vehicle type and have gotten a different car at the same price.

I have had cases where I made a reservation less than 24 hours before picking up a vehicle, but I didn't strictly need a car. I actually was arriving too late by bus and it was too late to cancel my original reservation. I found a rental agency for the next day that had plenty of availability, and the one-day rental was even cheaper than my original reservation.

One deal is that the majority of car rental reservations aren't prepaid nor guaranteed by credit card. You can literally fail to show up without penalty. I've had at least one time when the car was optional and I just went up to the counter and said I didn't need it. If you can get a better price or better availability, you can easily walk away from a previous reservation without any penalty. Once I had three reservations active at the same time, although I did cancel all but one to be fair to the rental agencies. I thought maybe there was a risk that one rental agency might cancel two simultaneous reservations, but I guess it would have been possible for me to rent two cars at the same time. At least in California, someone is automatically allowed to drive a rental car if a spouse has rented it, provided standard age and licensing requirements are met. The spouse isn't required to be listed on the rental paperwork. So renting two cars isn't something that's out of question for being impractical since a spouse could just take the second vehicle.

 

[Kimi313]

That is the strangest advice to not reserve. Reserving means locking in a rate, while showing up the day of could mean anything from the rates shooting up to no availability. I have had to wait for a car before, but if I showed up without a reservation I don't know which place has the best prices and I might have to wait behind all the people who have reserved.

I rarely run into a case where I have to wait long for a car, but that affects everyone. I've also had no availability of my reserved vehicle type and have gotten a different car at the same price.

I have had cases where I made a reservation less than 24 hours before picking up a vehicle, but I didn't strictly need a car. I actually was arriving too late by bus and it was too late to cancel my original reservation. I found a rental agency for the next day that had plenty of availability, and the one-day rental was even cheaper than my original reservation.

One deal is that the majority of car rental reservations aren't prepaid nor guaranteed by credit card. You can literally fail to show up without penalty. I've had at least one time when the car was optional and I just went up to the counter and said I didn't need it. If you can get a better price or better availability, you can easily walk away from a previous reservation without any penalty. Once I had three reservations active at the same time, although I did cancel all but one to be fair to the rental agencies. I thought maybe there was a risk that one rental agency might cancel two simultaneous reservations, but I guess it would have been possible for me to rent two cars at the same time. At least in California, someone is automatically allowed to drive a rental car if a spouse has rented it, provided standard age and licensing requirements are met. The spouse isn't required to be listed on the rental paperwork. So renting two cars isn't something that's out of question for being impractical since a spouse could just take the second vehicle.

Good advice! Thank you!

 

[bcla]

Good advice! Thank you!

No problem. I just wanted to point out that the majority of car rental reservations don't require a credit card to secure the reservation and allow the reserver to walk away from it without penalty. Pay attention to the reservation process and you'll know. Some rental agencies will have a discounted rate for a prepaid reservation that can't be cancelled, so be aware of that. I wouldn't do that since I've never seen a discounted rate that is worth it if my plans changed.

Here's a blog post on this:

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...how-a-rental-car-reservation-without-penalty/

The rental car agencies generally assign their inventory with the understanding that a certain number of reservations will be no-shows. The issue with a certain vehicle class not being available happens when too many vehicles are returned late and/or there are an unusually low number of no-shows.

You can sometimes get special rates from Priceline or other travel sites. It generally doesn't require the rental be prepaid. I typically check through Priceline first, then check directly with the rental agency's website to see if the price is the same or better. There can be a huge variation in price.

 

[Kimi313]

Let me ask another question, my daughter and her husband have two large suitcases and me and my husband have 2 medium suitcases. How accurate is the suitcase guidelines on the different size cars? What would you recommend for us?

 

[bcla]

Let me ask another question, my daughter and her husband have two large suitcases and me and my husband have 2 medium suitcases. How accurate is the suitcase guidelines on the different size cars? What would you recommend for us?

You never really know until you find out exactly what you'll be driving. One time I was renting in Hawaii and saw a car I really wanted to try out even though it was small. We had 4 carry-on sized pieces and those barely fit in the trunk. Different rental car agencies (or even different locations) might do things differently. Some select one for you, but you have the option of asking for a different one if you don’t like it. Others have rows of various vehicle classes and you’re free to select your own and they handle the inspection after your selection. You can always try out the trunk to see if everything fits, and ask for/select a different vehicle until you get one that works for you.

The one time we had ridiculous luggage space was when our selection of a “full sized” car wasn’t available, so they offered us a minivan at the same price. It did get somewhat worse fuel economy, but there was tons of room for 4 people. The one drawback was that we were vacationing in a touristy place with known luggage theft issues. I was hoping for something with a trunk to hide our luggage.

 

[Kimi313]

You never really know until you find out exactly what you'll be driving. One time I was renting in Hawaii and saw a car I really wanted to try out even though it was small. We had 4 carry-on sized pieces and those barely fit in the trunk. Different rental car agencies (or even different locations) might do things differently. Some select one for you, but you have the option of asking for a different one if you don’t like it. Others have rows of various vehicle classes and you’re free to select your own and they handle the inspection after your selection. You can always try out the trunk to see if everything fits, and ask for/select a different vehicle until you get one that works for you.

The one time we had ridiculous luggage space was when our selection of a “full sized” car wasn’t available, so they offered us a minivan at the same price. It did get somewhat worse fuel economy, but there was tons of room for 4 people. The one drawback was that we were vacationing in a touristy place with known luggage theft issues. I was hoping for something with a trunk to hide our luggage.

Thanks for the info! See we are hoping for the ticket request for James Cordan to go through and they say no cell phones inside so it kinda freaks me out having our luggage with cell phones in the car while we are in there if we have an SUV with windows you can see thru. I feel like being in a tourist area where people know the rules makes our chances higher for a break in. Call me paranoid! After James Cordan we go on to Disneyland for that part of our trip.

 

[StageTek]

You'll be just fine, Kimi. I understand that because this is your first time renting a car the variables can be daunting. You do not have to take an SUV with windows you can see through. You do not have to take a car that will not hold all your luggage. The suitcase guidelines on the different size cars are quite accurate so reserve the car you want now and when you get to the counter talk to the rep. They are there to help. In your first post you brought up having to wait. You might have to wait a bit if you need to make some changes, but not so long as to delay your trip

BTW: Parking is available on the CBS lot. It's expensive but your cell phone in the luggage will be safe.

 

[Kimi313]

Did not know about the CBS parking lot, thanks for the info and advice. Feeling better now!